Liverpool celebrated confirmation of the league title last weekend. Trent Alexander-Arnold played his part in the festivities, which answered some questions but raised plenty more of them.
First and foremost, it’s worth stating that Alexander-Arnold is still expected to leave. Despite Real Madrid’s struggles in the league and the Champions League, and the clear upward trajectory of Liverpool under Arne Slot, there has been no apparent change in his desire to move to the Spanish capital.
He will leave Anfield for nothing. That’s a galling reality for FSG, which is losing a $100 million player (at least) on a free transfer, but it’s also a tough one for fans to take.
Instictinvely, it feels like a bad way to leave your boyhood club. At least someone like Philippe Coutinho set Liverpool up to rebuild, with his departure ultimately funding the arrivals of Alisson and Fabinho (and, albeit slightly retrospectively, Virgil van Dijk as well).
With that in mind, there had been some doubts over the kind of send-off Alexander-Arnold would receive. Online, at least, he has been subject to some stinging criticism.
But in the euphoria of the scenes at Anfield, it became clear that Alexander-Arnold will be granted the Liverpool goodbye that he ultimately deserves. Nobody begrudged him his place amid all the joy, and he was celebrated along with everyone else who has played a part in this achievement.
The bottom line is that this title is not about him, nor his future. The club will always be bigger than any single player, and that almost provides Alexander-Arnold with a strange kind of absolution.
(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
There is no anger that he has “abandoned” Liverpool, because Liverpool does not feel abandoned. It is in a position to thank Alexander-Arnold for all his years of service, and then to set about continuing to strive for the top prizes without him.
Whether the club will prepare any special tribute for Alexander-Arnold remains to be seen. But he knows now that Anfield will not turn on him.
Yet that makes it all the more difficult to understand why he wants to leave at all. His unconditional adulation from the Kop is quite something to leave behind.
Standing in front of the famous stand, Liverpool’s vice-captain looked genuinely moved by the rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone. Surely there must have been a part of him questioning his decision?
Because Alexander-Arnold is not Coutinho. He is an Academy graduate, a Liverpool native raised to idolize Steven Gerrard.
Celebrating the title with the people of his city is as good as it gets. And those people showed him a fierce loyalty by letting him share in the moment, in spite of his impending departure.
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Alexander-Arnold will simply not get that at Real Madrid. Kylian Mbappe was whistled at the Bernabeu just the other week.
Of course, it’s a reality of football that these things go both ways. Liverpool has a team full of players who mostly hail from other cities, other countries, and other continents, many of whom still sung the anthem of the club they have adopted with the glint of tears in their eyes.
But those players joined Liverpool to fulfil their ambitions. Why Alexander-Arnold feels as though he has to leave to do that, having just lifted one of the most prestigious trophies in the game, is increasingly hard to fathom.
The sense at Anfield that this is only the start of something special was tangible. Yet Alexander-Arnold is electing to make it the ending to his own story at Liverpool.
He will not be left to walk alone in his final weeks at the club. But while Liverpool fans have shown themselves to be magnanimous enough to accept his decision, few will ever be able to understand it.
